TeenRead Books

May 2011

05/30/2011

I was drawn to this book because when my family's friends got together I was the kid that didn't hang out with the other kids (even though I liked them), I was the one in the kitchen with the adults and if I was lucky I got to play a few hands of euchre. When I was older I played spades and hearts, too. What I liked about this story was the way Alton learned about his Uncle's life as the story progressed and began to see him as a person instead of just his old uncle that he didn't know very well. Kind of the same way I used to listen to my parents and their friends talk over cards and learned about their histories. The strategy of the game was fun, too. I haven't played bridge, but I find that the techniques are similar to some of these other card games I've played and reading this book made bridge understandable enough to where I'd like to try a game sometime.

05/26/2011

When Thomas first arrives at the Glade, he (and we the readers) have tons of questions. The Gladers refuse to answer his questions and instead he must slowly build a new understanding of this place he’s found himself in. In some books, the author might share information like that with the reader, but not let the main character know what’s going on, but James Dashner keeps us in the dark just as much as Thomas. As a reader, did it frustrate you to not know the reasons for these bizarre things or did it just make it hard to put the book down? Or both?

05/24/2011

Evie loves her weekly dose of TV drama, shopping trips to the mall, & is very attracted to the teenage guy she just caught. But the IPCA (International Paranormal Containment Agency) thinks she is dangerous... Is Evie "normal"? Are you "normal"? Who defines "normal"?

I love the light humor that is combined in this novel with mystery, romance, and the dark foreboding sense of disaster about to happen...a little like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Percy Jackson series. After reading so many intense paranormal books (Halo, Hush, Hush, Beautiful Creatures, Twilight series), this felt like a great release. Did you enjoy the humor in it or do you prefer your fantasies dark and brooding?

This book makes me think a lot about words and language and how I would feel if I was forced to "forget" my family's language and punished for using the words that are in my heart. I would be heart broken and would miss the sound of stories being told, I would miss reading my favorite books, and I would really miss the sound of my family's voices. How would you feel if you were punished for speaking your first language? Would you be defiant and openly continue to speak your native tongue? Would you try to hide your words? Or do you think that you'd try to forget your first language?

05/23/2011

When she drops out of school and struggles to start a career on Broadway in the fall of 1950, seventeen-year-old Kit Corrigan accepts help from an old family friend, a lawyer said to have ties with the mob, who then asks her to do some favors for him.

Although seventeen-year-old Amber Appleton is homeless, living in a school bus with her unfit mother, she is a relentless optimist who visits the elderly at a nursing home, teaches English to Korean Catholic women with the use of rhythm and blues music, and befriends a solitary Vietnam veteran and his dog, but eventually she experiences one burden more than she can bear and slips into a deep depression.

In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen-year-old Evie of the International Paranormal Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring shapeshifter, Lend.